MxMIndia

Tag: Discovery Networks International

  • Discovery Veteran Previously Led European Business and Has Extensive Experience in Asia

    Discovery moves Arthur Bastings to Prez & MD, APAC

    By A Correspondent

     

    Arthur Bastings Discovery Networks International (DNI) has named Arthur Bastings as the new head of the Asia-Pacific region, effective 1 September. The announcement was made by Jean-BriacPerrette, President of DNI, to whom Bastings will report.

     

    As President and Managing Director of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP), Bastings is responsible for setting the regional strategy and maximising the potential of DNAP’s business and workforce to accelerate the company’s expansion. He will be based out of the Singapore office.

     

    Bastings joins DNAP from Millicom, an international telecommunications and media company, where he was a member of the Executive Committee responsible for Africa and Financial Services, focusing on mobile and information and communications technology convergence. He brings over 20 years’ experience working in the TV and media business, including several years leading strategy and business development for Viacom across Asia. Bastings also previously spent six years as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Discovery. Under his leadership, Discovery’s EMEA business transformed by doubling audiences and generating exceptional organic growth that resulted in one of the fastest growing and largest pay TV businesses in the region.

     

    “The Asia Pacific region encompasses two thirds of the world’s population and thus represents one of the biggest growth opportunities for our company.  Arthur has a remarkable combination of experience in Asia, strong strategic thinking, and a proven track record of growth and building strong teams. His deep knowledge of Discovery and familiarity with the Asia market will give him a great head start in accelerating DNAP’s expansion,” said Perrette.

     

    Since launching Discovery Channel in the region over 20 years ago, DNAP is now 15 channels strong. DNAP is committed to continue investing and building its scale and market share in Asia Pacific, a key region for Discovery’s international business. Backing its localisation strategy to deepen its connection and relevancy with audiences, DNAP opened new local offices this year in Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, and continued the momentum with the appointment of a new country head in Korea.

     

  • Discussions on digitization (& how it could impact the sector) dominated the three-day FICCI-Frames 2012 last week

    Counting on digital to be M&E’s trailblazer

     

    @FF12: Day 1: Digital attracts ‘desirable’ status
    on Day1
    @FF12: Day 2: Seamless blending with traditional mediums – a big want!
    @FF12: Day 3: Industry expects thoughts to lead to pertinent actions
    @FF12: Takeaways: Digitization rules the roost @FICCI Frames 2012

    By A Correspondent

     

    Those familiar with the going-ons at FICCI Frames would testify how an infatuation gets displayed by delegates at the event each year so as to summarise the mood of the convention even before it broadly takes off across the three days that it is entitled to. But probably, the setting was a bit different this time around when the delegates – joined in unison by the media – were running ballroom to ballroom trying to ingest giveaways that were being thrown up abundantly across several sessions. May be, it was a year where each day had something new to offer to the delegates that kept them at tenterhooks throughout the 3-day event. And going by the loud decibels that were being emanated across every nook and corner of the venue, it was evidently clear that there was some motivating factor that was driving the gathering to go on an overdrive spree.

     

    The organisers of FICCI Frames 2012 have every right to take credit for coming up with a theme around a medium that attracted the attention of one and all. Having kept it on the sidelines till last year, digital was finally given its due at the convention as experts, authorities and enthusiastic youngsters came face to face to deliberate and come up with outcomes that would redefine the way the consumers consume the medium. From television to print to films and even radio, digitisation and the benefits and effects it would cast on these sectors were discussed in length at the venue. In fact Star India CEO Uday Shankar in his keynote address didn’t hesitate in thanking the FICCI committee for putting across a theme that would go on to redefine the way the industry functions in the future.

     

    What was apparently clear through the various sessions at the convention is that with the nearing of date for total digitisation across key metros by June 30 2012, and then across the country by 2014, broadcasters had to relook their distribution and content provision models so as to keep the consumer at the heart of every shift that will transpire in the future. Emphasising on the current digitisation scenario in the country, Mr Shankar said, “Most of the discussions that I have participated in are still around whether digitization will happen and if it indeed were to go through, how chaotic it would be. But all these are meaningless discussions triggered by a bunch of retrograde interests who are living in denial.” According to Mr Shankar, digitisation of distribution is a big reality and the 40-45 million homes that have bought DTH boxes at some point or the other are a conclusive evidence of that.

     

    Shooting back at critics who had doubted whether the makeover to digital would ever be a reality, Mr Shankar said, “To the critics and the cynics who are still wondering whether digitization would happen, my answer is: Look around, it is already happening and the rest of it is bound to happen because even in this country it would be difficult to undo such a momentous shift. To those who wonder how chaotic it would be, my response is that there would be some chaos, but chaos is not necessarily bad if the alternative is status quo or regression. When a transition at such a scale is happening that affects the illegitimate but strong vested interest in certain pockets, then there is an incentive to put up with chaos in the interest of the larger social objectives.”

     

    A broader outlook was provided by a few panellists who said that digitization will come in as a relief for broadcasters who will be benefitted from additional subscription revenue, relaxation on paying heavy carriage fees, and of course providing viewers with a superior content experience – MSOs and cable operators have to quickly respond to the digitization mandate by investing in set-top boxes – the cost that is only possible to recover after four years.

     

    Sounding off the challenges that digitisation would present for the broadcast sector, Tarun Katial, CEO of Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd said that, “For television, it will be a combination of content as well as marketing. The old model which was a combination of carriage and product, as it stands today, won’t work. The business plan which currently has a very high rate of carriage will obviously see the content taking precedence.” And as for content, it will be niche content that will call the shots for broadcasters as according to experts at the convention, niche isn’t niche any more as all niche channels put together command a share that is equivalent to the share of Hindi GECs and the mass channels, so to say.

     

    Perhaps the many advantages that digitisation will have on several mediums was rounded off by Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, South Asia, Group M who said, “The inherent power that digital brings along with it is interactivity and its ability to link multiple devices. Also the ability to enhance real-time consumption of content; linked to that is the entire thing about going mobile.” On the roadmap for the industry, Mr Sakhuja said, “I think integrated media is the best way forward. Today when people think of multimedia planning, they do a separate TV plan, print plan, radio plan, internet plan and so on. I believe that if you actually look at media agnostically and at common metrics of each cost per thousand impressions, these are the ways in which you can construct a media agnostic plan. What it does is, it suddenly gets more money into digital, and when more money can come into digital, that’s when focus is going to come in.”

     

    While digitisation was the mainstay of every discussion, the all-important issue of regulation too was taken up by panellists who chose to have the government respond to the many queries surrounding the topic. Uday K Varma, I&B Secretary, said that “if people at large seem to be happy with self regulation, I think the government would have no problem in legitimizing them. But I think the self regulation mechanism which has been set up by both the news broadcasters and the entertainment broadcasters, they’ll have to really prove it, not to the government but to the people at large.” He was joined in his cause by Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister ofMaharashtrawho said that the challenge would be to adopt the regulatory framework to new technology and ensure that over regulation doesn’t kill a good thing. The Chief Minister emphasised on the need for regulation and suggested that instead of the state regulating the media, the medium should look at regulating itself.

     

    The other important announcements that came up at the venue included the soon-to-be-passed Copyright Amendment Bill, the roll-out of the imminent phase 3 radio policy that would steer the growth of the medium and increased government aid for the film & entertainment sector.

     

    New ventures @ FICCI

     

    BARC takes wings

    In between the many promises and hopes that were being doled out at the sessions came the news of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) announcing the official formation of a nationwide audience research joint body — Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

    While IBF will have 60 per cent stake in BARC, ISA and AAAI will each hold 20 per cent stake. The Board of the council will have 10 members, six members from the IBF and two members each from the ISA and AAAI.

     

    Discovery Kids to flag off ops in April

    Another important announcement was made by President & CEO of Discovery Networks International, Mark Hollinger who announced the launch of its new network for children inIndia, ‘Discovery Kids’. Mr Hollinger said, “Launching in April, the network will initially be available in three languages – Hindi, English and Tamil. The channel will offer children a fun and entertaining way to satisfy their natural curiosity with stimulating and imaginative programming,” he said. The company plans to roll out the channel inPhilippinesandIndonesialater this year.

     

    Ten Golf tees off

    Taj Television India Pvt Ltd announced the launch of Ten Golf, a dedicated 24-hour golf channel. Ten Golf is the fifth channel from Taj Television India Pvt Ltd and began transmission on March 15, 2012. The dedicated golf channel will showcase a mix of live, non-live and feature programming. The channel will also broadcast live, high quality Golf action from around the world.

    Ten Golf has acquired rights for European Tour and Asian Tour till 2016, and has also entered into partnership with PGTI for three years to telecast the Indian Tour. Further, Ten Golf will be telecasting 400 hrs of golf programming in association with NBC.

     

  • Mark Hollinger, Puneet Goenka and Carolyn Everson discussed the challenges and opportunities for media

    @FF12: Entertainment has become a revolution

     

    The second session of FICCI Frames had ‘industry doyens, including key enablers, shed light on challenges and opportunities for the times ahead’. The session was moderated by Vishnu Som, Editor, Documentaries and Senior Anchor, NDTV.

     

    The session was opened by Mr Som welcoming Mark Hollinger, President & CEO, Discovery Networks International (DNI), who took the stage to talk about DNI’s journey in India. From a single network launched in 1995, today DNI has grown to seven channels. Mr Hollinger gave the credit of this success to DNI’s advantage of being an early mover in the Indian market.

     

    While talking about the process of digitisation, Mr Hollinger said that it is a great opportunity for a truly interactive pay TV experience. He appreciated the investment  made by the C&S community (the set top boxes and the marketing for the same).

     

    Mr Hollinger was of the opinion that the viewers today prefer sophisticated technology and the same applied for TV too. He said that digitisation is a win-win situation for all. The consumer gets a better product with ‘wider choices’ and the broadcasters will get a better business model which allows ‘faster and broader penetration of HD channels’. He stated that embracing digitisation will push broadcasters to perform better.

     

    In the Q&A session with Mr Som, when he was asked about the benefits of producing content v/s revenue, Mr Hollinger said one-third of their operational revenue and profits is recovered from the market due to their early mover advantage. He revealed that they spend almost $1 billion on producing content.

     

    Being an international channel which enteredIndiain 1995, Mr Hollinger talked about howIndia, as a country, is more open to foreign content. He also said that even then they offer regionalised content created specially for the local viewers and also the option to view the international content in the local language. Mr Hollinger stated that their strategy worked as was evident from the Brand Trust Report which has named Discovery as the third most popular channel and TLC as the fifth.

     

    In the Q&A session, when Mr Som questioned him about the pros and cons of local v/s international content, Mr Hollinger said that the local staff keeps them appraised about how the content is received. He said that the mix of international and local content is almost 50-50.

     

    Mr Hollinger saved the best for the last. While closing his speech, he announced that DNI is launching Discovery Kids in India, which is the launch pad for theAsialaunch. The channel will also be launched inIndonesiaandPhilippines.

     

    He also revealed plans to expand DNI’s scope to DVDs, retail, publishing and merchandising in the “biggest satellite market today”.

     

    Next up was Puneet Goenka, CEO and MD, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL). Mr Goenka opened his address by stating entertainment is no longer an evolution but has become a revolution. He said that digitisation of content is a good move as the drivers of today’s content are “highly motivated youngsters who are high risk takers and have large disposable income”. They have the power to influence products to be customised and digitisation will help achieve just that.

     

    With the help of a powerpoint presentation, Mr Goenka listed out the pros and cons of digitisation. He listed the fact that the penetration of private channels is still low and there is a lot of scope to grow as a benefit. Citing the example of Ditto TV, he said that now new media is the media to go to.

     

    During the Q&A session, when asked about the benefits of digitisation, he said that the sheer choice that the consumer gets is the benefit which will also be beneficial to them as the number of channels being offered in HD will go up.

     

    While talking about self-regulation in media, Mr Goenka said that it is still early days, as the norms have just been laid out by the news and entertainment industry. Time is needed to let them evolve and make a difference.

     

    Next to address the audience was Carolyn Everson, VP, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook, whose address featured on how Facebook can benefit the media and entertainment industry. Giving the example of Open Graph, Ms Everson illustrated how Saavn in music, Zinga in gaming and films being released in theUSuse Open Graph by sharing stories built their brand on “top of Facebook”.

     

    Her ‘Aaha’ moment about Facebook came when, while talking to an anthropologist, she realised that communities and networks have always been around us but Facebook brings them to us at a scale never seen before due to the technology available.

     

    She said that Facebook is a reflection of the unique individual identity and the social graph is created using the information shared by the individual.

     

    Ms Everson also dealt with how Facebook is trying to take marketing from ads to stories. The thought behind the idea is that ads may be remembered once but stories are shared and remembered by millions. The best example of this is the Timeline pages for the brands which allow them to communicate one-on-one with their fans.

     

    During the Q&A session, Ms Everson faced some tough questions from Mr Som, when he asked her about how Facebook has been dealing with objectionable content. She answered that they work very hard to regulate content and address complaints regularly. When she was asked how and why do they decide what is unsafe or objectionable, she answered that the communities regulate the content and Facebook takes their input very seriously.

     

    Photograph: Fotocorp